The Movie:

One of a few recent television series spawned by the success of the feature film (which was, in turn, spun off of the insanely popular toy line, original animated series, and comic books), Transformers: Animated was originally aired on the Cartoon Network in December of 2007. Through the magic of DVD, however, the complete second season of the show, a Japanese-American co-production just like Transformers: Cybertron, is now available on home video following in the wake of last years release of season one.

So what sets this series apart from the other Transformers cartoons that have hit the airwaves over the last few years? Not much, really. The series, while aimed at a slightly younger audience than some of the shows that came before it, still follows the ongoing war between the heroic Autobots and the evil Decepticons, both former residents of the planet Cybertron. The five core Autobots - Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, Prowl, Bulkhead and Ratchet - find the Allspark only to wind up stranded on Earth where Decepticons, lead by Megatron and Starscream, run amok and cause problems. That's really all there is to it, each episode finds the Decepticons (or another villain) up to no good only to get thwarted by Prime and his crew.

Disc One contains the following episodes:

The Elite Guard / The Return Of The Headmaster / Mission Accomplished / Garbage In, Garbage Out / Velocity / Rise Of The Constructicons

Disc Two contains the following episodes:

A Fistful Of Energon / S.U.V. - Society Of Ultimate Villainy / Autoboot Camp / Black Friday / Sari, No One's Home / A Bridge Too Close Part One / A Bridge Too Close Part Two

If you've seen the first season you'll already know that there have been some changes to the established continuity of the older cartoons and that might irk longtime fans or purists, but the basic principles that have made these characters so much fun for a couple of decades now have more or less survived intact. Story wise, everyone on Earth knows who the Autobots are once they bravely save a scientist and his daughter from a bug monster thing. They're no longer running around in secret like they once were, instead they're hanging out in Detroit (which seems like an appropriate location given the cities automotive history) and doing their thing.

Again, the animation style here differs from the other more recent efforts to revive the franchise. The anime style that was employed in Transformers: Cybertron and its two predecessors has been eschewed in favor of a more traditional 2-D style that is definitely closer to that original eighties series. Where most fans will probably take issue is how the characters have all been redesigned and tweaked, or if you prefer, 'updated' a fair bit and not all of that works. Optimus Prime, the mighty leader of the Autobots, has spindly legs and looks less like he was transformed from a big-rig than simply designed to be a robot - not a Transformer, but a robot. The Autobots look a lot more like superheroes in this series than they ever have in the past and this comes at a price - some of the 'cool' factor that came from being able to believe that these robots were able to transform into vehicles (or portable type players, or guns, or dinosaurs!) and back again is gone with the new designs.

Along with the design changes, the characters differ quiet a bit as well. Optimus doesn't carry the same weight that he has in the past. Before this series he was wise and tough, here he's played as more of a young turk looking to make his way up the ranks, almost a little too green behind the ears. His fellow Autobots all follow suit in this regard and one gets the impression that this generation of Transformers are in fact a bunch of wily teenagers out looking for a scrap rather than a hyper-intelligent race of space traveling robots in disguise hoping to put an end to what seems like an eternal struggle. Ratchet is a bit more sage than the rest of the crew but he's really the only one who seems to have any sort of real experience in this battle.

As to how this second season differs from the first, well, to be honest, it's more of the same. If you enjoyed that first batch of episodes then this second batch will appeal to you in much the same way. Most of the stories are told in self contained episodes (the only exception being the two A Bridge Too Far episodes) which makes it easy for younger viewers to jump in and follow along. Continuity is pretty thing, meaning that you don't need to be all that well versed in what happened before to be able to enjoy the material here. That said, the story is affected by the events in season one. Megatron and his Decepticons have got the Key at the beginning of this season so Optimus Prime and his Autobots have to do whatever it takes to get it back. The human population of their new home have lost faith in the Autobots so they've got to get over this hurdle fairly quickly to restore their good standing in the community. Complicating matters for Prime and his crew is the arrival of the Autobot Elite Guard who have arrived on Earth to retrieve the Allspark. The jokes on them, however, as it's been blown up and there's nothing for them to take back with them. This puts the Autobots in a bit of a bind as they try to stop the Decepticons from taking over the Earth while at the same time trying to clean up Detroit. Thankfully they find some help in the form of a girl named Sari who, like her Autobot friends, is much more than meets the eye.

A few fun subplots involving the likes of Prime's old sparring partner, Sentinel Prime as well as the Headmasters and the return of the Constructicons help keep things interesting throughout the series. Long time fans will appreciate seeing some of the eighties characters back in animated form while newer fans unfamiliar with the series' legacy can enjoy meeting some of these characters for the first time. The human character of Sari, a young girl, makes the show easy for kids to relate to and, while she might at times annoy older viewers, her inclusion in the series definitely makes sense considering the show's target demographic. Older viewers might appreciate some of the voice work here, with Lance Henriksen of all people providing the voice of bounty hunter Lockdown and Fred Willard playing Swindle. While it might have been fun to have cast members like this on for the long haul, it's cool to just to hear them show up in the series at all. If that weren't cool enough, Weird Al Yankovic also lends his voice to the series, playing a Sumdac employee in the Garbage In, Garbage Out episode.

All in all, Transformers Animated winds up as a nice mix of goofy slapstick comedy and fun sci-fi action. It's 110% kid friendly and decent entertainment for children of all ages. It might not work on the headier level of some of the other Transformers series and it might change a fair bit from the original eighties series but the spirit that made that original series work is definitely there.

The Video:

Well, aside from the fact that the fullframe transfers contained in this collection are interlaced and as such may be subject to some ugly combing artifacts depending on your home theater set up, the picture quality is pretty good. The colors are appropriately bright and bold without looking too overcooked while the black levels stay strong throughout the duration of the series. Detail levels look about as good as can be expected - the animation style employed on this series is a little more minimalist than, say, Transformers Cybertron - but generally, everything looks quite nice here and the episodes look just as good if not better than they did when originally broadcast on television.

The Audio:

Audio options are supplied in English and Spanish Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo tracks for each of the episodes in this collection. While a 5.1 mix would have made the action scenes a little more fun, the stereo tracks get the job done nicely even if they obviously don't have as much depth. Dialogue stays clean and clear and there aren't any problems at all with hiss or distortion. Sound effects and the musical score are mixed in with the dialogue nicely and never overpower anything they shouldn't. This isn't reference quality material, but again, the show sounds just as good or slightly better here on DVD than it did on television.

The Extras:

Disc One contains commentary tracks for Mission Accomplished that comes courtesy of supervising director Matt Youngberg, lead producer designer Eric Siebenaler, art director Derrick Wyatt and story editor/head writer Marty Isenberg. The same participants also deliver a commentary for the Garbage In, Garbage Out episode. Both of these tracks are pretty active with a fair bit of attention paid for the pre-production process and the writing process behind each episode. The participants all talk enthusiastically about their work on the series and handle it all with a welcome sense of humor. Both tracks are quite interesting and just as fun as the episodes they lay over top of and it's obvious that these guys are big fans of the Transformers in general.

There are also two animated shorts (running a combined total of 1:58) in which Megatron delivers a speech to the Decepticons and in which a pair of Decepticons decide to build a swimming pool in the middle of a forest. A still gallery of production art, static menus and episode selection are also included and an advertisement for a Transformers video game plays immediately after the disc loads. Disc two is barebones save for static menus and episode selection.

Overall:

A fun and exciting batch of episodes Transformers Animated - Season Two isn't the most sophisticated cartoon ever made but it's certainly an enjoyable one. Paramount makes up for the near barebones release of Season One by including some decent extra features this time around and it isn't hard to recommend this set to fans of the series.

Ian lives in NYC with his wife where he writes for DVD Talk, runs Rock! Shock! Pop!. He likes NYC a lot, even if it is expensive and loud.